Aquinas on Law

In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas says this about law (I-II, 90, 1):

Law is a rule and measure of acts, whereby man is induced to act or is restrained from acting: for "lex" [law] is derived from "ligare" [to bind], because it binds one to act. Now the rule and measure of human acts is the reason, which is the first principle of human acts, as is evident from what has been stated above (1, 1, ad 3); since it belongs to the reason to direct to the end, which is the first principle in all matters of action, according to the Philosopher (Phys. ii). Now that which is the principle in any genus, is the rule and measure of that genus: for instance, unity in the genus of numbers, and the first movement in the genus of movements. Consequently it follows that law is something pertaining to reason.

In the Summa Contra Gentiles, he says this (Book III, 114, 5; sorry, no link for this. I'm having trouble locating an unabridged website for SCG, and this paragraph has been abridged out of existence in the online editions I have seen):

Furthermore, since law is nothing but a rational plan of operation, and since the rational plan of any kind of work is derived from the end, anyone capable of receiving the law receives it from him who shows the way to the end.

If law is a plan of operation, it must be directed towards an end. What is the end of our laws? What is the goal of the tens of thousands of pages of fine print to which we are all subject? What is the purpose? It would be difficult in the extreme for me to believe that the plethora of regulations under which we all labor are ordered to the end of safeguarding the liberty that was bought for us with the blood of the Founding Fathers. In fact, I do not believe that in the slightest. Many laws include a declaration of their specific purposes, and that is somewhat helpful in answering the question, but I suppose I am more interested in whether there is a larger, unspoken end in view.

The Constitution declares its purpose in the Preamble:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

So the ends in view, for the sake of which the Constitution was established, were these:

• Improve the union of the states
• Establish justice
• Insure domestic tranquility
• National defense
• Promote the nation's welfare
• Secure the blessings of liberty

Lofty goals, and one could study the Constitution to see how consistent its provisions were with its stated ends, and our nation's history to see how successful those provisions were in achieving those ends. I wonder if our current laws measure up to them.

St. Thomas says that our end is God - specifically, the beatific vision. If that is the case, then our whole lives ought to be ordered to its realization - not just yours and mine, but our community's life, and our state's, and our nation's. It seems to me that the ends expressed in the Preamble are conducive in themselves to the greater end of allowing citizens the liberty to pursue their end, which is God. To that extent it seems that the Preamble is consistent with a Christian conception of the law. But it seems also to be defective, in that it acknowledges no greater end both for the United States and for American citizens. But the United States is not an end in itself (or rather, it shouldn't be). By its failure to acknowledge that Greatest End, does the Preamble - as fine a declaration as it is - sow the seeds for the statism to which we have now descended?